{
  "abstract": "Small things, when used billions of times, no longer have a small impact. Single-serve coffee capsules and bottled water illustrate how small quantities of material, when multiplied across global demand, generate outsized lifecycle emissions relative to the systems they support. Healthcare is not immune to this phenomenon. Ultrasound (US) is widely regarded as the most environmentally efficient diagnostic technology because of its modest energy-related carbon footprint relative to other imaging modalities.1 When looking at the full lifecycle assessment of ultrasound use at a large US hospital, the consumables used during ultrasound imaging represent an important and often forgotten proportion of its carbon impact. Of the 17 metric tons carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) total, the disposable supplies contributed 34% (5.5 metric tons CO2e), of which ultrasound gel (32%) and gloves (28%) were the largest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions.2 This is further amplified with the packaging intensity, sterilization processing, and material-to-product ratio in sterile gel when compared with non-sterile gel.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada"
      ],
      "name": "Vivian H Y Ip"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Anesthesiology Department, Clinique Drouot Sport, Paris, France",
        "Clinical Research Department, Ambroise Pare Hospital Group, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France"
      ],
      "name": "Sébastien Bloc"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Rakesh V Sondekoppam"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Ultrasound gel: an overlooked sustainability challenge",
  "uid": "5a55e4f7-1ae1-58f9-863b-b00645ffd50c"
}